Laser angular rate sensor



155-699 AU 233 EX P198106 x2 3,373,650 y JBSTITUTE FOR MISSING IR March 1968 J. a. KILLPATRICK 3,3

' usa mam RATE sansoa filed April 2. 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 POWER SOURCE OUTPUT l8 COMPARATOR COUNTER RATE as a OOUNTERr momma 3s a ems swrr P Q 41 is INVENTOR.

JOSEPH E. IGLLPATRICK .v 4 3373650 o3 IN ;356(106LRL .1

March 19, 1968 J. E. KILLPATRICK LASER manna nus ssuson Filed A ril 2. 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet z .axis'sosstomain LASER ANGULAR RATE SENSOR Joseph E. Kiilpatricli, Minneapolis, Minn, assiguor to Honeywell Inc, Minneapolis, l\-linn.,,a corporation of Delaware Filed Apr. 2, 1965. Ser. No. 445,171

7 8Clsims.(Cl.881-i)- ABSTRACT or run mscnosrmu Bias system for laser gyroscope in which the gyroscope is electrically or mechanically oscillated so that it is ellcctively above the threshold rate a majority of the time including an optical system to compensate for this bias over short time intervals. Over longer time intervals the ac-. cumulated bias is relatively negligible.

The present invention relates to rotation measuring aplight as a measure of rotation. Although the present in'-' vention is described with reference to the use of laser produced light, it should be understood that the new and novel techniques disclosed are equally applicable to rota-'- tion measuring dcvices'which utilize any electromagnetic radiation. L

In a laser angular rate sensor, two monochromatic difference between the two beams since the. frequency of oscillation of a laser is dependent upon the lengthof the lasingpathi The frequency dillerence between thetwo causes a. phase shift between these beams which changes at arate proportional to the frequency difference, thus, the

phase shiftbctween the two beams is proportionalto the integral of the frequency difterence. In other words, the output is representative of the integral of the input rate.

However, at low rotational. rates when the difference in frequency between the two beams is small, the two beams tend to resonate together or lock-inso that the two beams oscillate at only one frequency. Thus, it becomes impossible to read low rotation rates because the frequency dillerence, which is proportional to the rotation ratenloes not exist at these low rates. r

The present invention avoids this problem by operating the laser angular rate sensor in a manner such that it is not required to measure low input rates directly. That is,

the beams are electricallyor mechanically oscillated with respect to the base so that the beams seem to be rotating at a rate higher than the lock-in rate for a majority of the time. The time: when the beams are below the lock-in rate, at the extremities of the oscillation, are only veryshort intervals, and, consequently, do not substantially affect the operation of the sensor.

embodiment, the apparatus is simply oscillated about the talh an input rate higher than the lock-in rate for a majority of the time. no electrical embodi- ,ment, a Faraday medium is used to bias the two laser beams by direct s paration thereof. Accordhigly, its an '30 beams of light are generated in two opposite directions around a closed loop path about the axis of rotation;

Rotation of the apparatus causes the'etlective path length. T for the two beams to change, thus, producing a-frequency' Patented Mar. 19, 1958 difierence a laser angular rate sensor for a majority of the time so as to avoid lock-in of the two beams.

in the following descriptions and drawings in which:

embodiment of my invention;

a FIGUREVZ is a partially broken away drawing of a mechanical embodiment of my invention; and

FIGURE3isadiagramingreaterdetailoftheprism of FIGURE 2 showing the paths taken by the light beams l "we Further objects and advantages will become apparent FIGURE 1 is a schematic diagram of the electrical 'knowu-tothose'in mean, for amplifying monochromatic, i coherent light-in two directions. A small .portion of in: beam traveling in a direction indicated by a set of arrowparatus, and more particularly to apparatus and techniques for preventing frequency coupling in devices which co'r'npare the frequencies 'of two counter rotating beams of heads designated by. the reference numeral 18 passes through the mirror 12 which is slightly transparent and is reflected by-a mirror 20 and a partially transparent mirror 22 to a detector array 24. The beam traveling in the 25 through mirror 12 and.partially transparent mirror 22 and impingcsupon detector array 2-1 at a slightly dilierent angle than beam 18. This slight angle between beam 18 and beam 26 causes afringevpattern to be formed on detector array 24; This fringe pattern consists of a pattern 1 of alternate light and dark hands of light which move to the left or right depending on the direction of rotation of the angular rate sensor. The rotation of this triangular loop is generally about the axis indicated by the reference 35. numeral 28 and the rate ofmovementof the fringe pattern I on detector array 24 is proportional to the rate of rotation of this triangular loop about axis 28. The position of the fringe pattern represents the integral of the irequency detectors operable to count the rate of passage of the alternate dark and light bands of the fringe pattern and to rays are well known to those skilled in the art. The-two oppositely rotating beams of light, 18 and 26,

31and 33 and a Faraday medium 35. A source of bias current 37, by means of a pair of conductors 3! and 41 i and a coil 43, maintains a magnetic field in the Faraday medium 35 so as to separate the' frequencies of the two oppositely traveling beams in a manner well known to those skilled in the art. This produces an effective path length difference for the oppositely rotating beams and the resultant frequency difference avoids the problem of lock-in by keeping the frequencies of the two beams far enough apart. However, this frequency difference is recorded by detector array 24 as a false signal. This false signal or count is recorded on a counter 45 by means of count on counter 45 is indicative of the amount of rota tion of the triangular loop plus the accumulated count which results from the frequency rifl'erence generated by Faraday medium 35 and bias source 37. In order to pre vent the aeeumulater error on counter 45 from becoming F important. the bias source 37 u of a variety which will periodically reverse polarity at an even rate so that the error signal resulting from Faraday medium 35 will periodically reverse and,

- period of time. For of explanation,

.are coursed to pass through a pair of quarterwave plates a pair of conductors 41 and 49. The total accumulated direction indicated by arrowheads 26 partially passe:

-' difference and, hence, the integrated input rate. Detector array 24 may be any suitable grouping of light sensitive determine their direction of movement. Such detectorlrtbereby,cancelontoveralougminus such as bias 37 is that,

Over a shorter period of time the output of counter t 45 is not exactly representative of the rotation of the triangular loop because it has a sine wave modulation caused I by bias source 37 superimposed on it. At any given instant the count on counter 45 is representative of the rotation of the loop plus the count from the Faraday medium 35. In order to eliminate this count from the Faraday medium at every instant a counter 50 is driven by the bias source 37 so as to produce counts of the same number as those caused on counter 45 by Faraday medium 35. These counts are then subtracted from the counts on counter 45 by means of a comparator 52 and the resultant signal, which is truly indicative of only the amount of rotation of the triangular loop about axis 28, is presented to an output counter 54 by means of a conductor 56. This output signal from output counter 54 is then present'ed to an output terminal 58 where it is available for the appropriate readout mechanisms.

The output signal from counter 54 is also presented to a rate monitor 60 which is operable to turn on a switch '62 and, thereby, activate bias source 37 by means of a power source 64 whenever the output counter 54 indicates that the rate of rotation of the system has fallen low enoughso that the problem of lock-in will necessitate the use of a bias source such as source37. Consequently; the use of a bias to separate the frequency of the two counter rotating beams is employed only when necessary, that is, when the rate of rotation of the system is so low that the frequencies of the two counter rotating beams are close together.

It should be noted that one of the possible advantages of using a current bias which if desired, the signal of bias source 37 may be supplied through a transformer or a capacitor so that the integral of the frequency dilierence created is zero and, thus, the comparator 52 which adds and subtracts from the counter 45 would have no net counts. It follows that the accumulated count on output counter 54 would be only that which arises from rotation of the system.

The ratio of the amount of counts generated by detector array 24 relative to the -amount of rotation of the system is called the scale factor and is known to be affected by changes in the gain of the laser gain medium lock-in the scale -cordancewiththeamo\mt circuit operates to further 10. Also, due to a number of other factors well known to those skilled in the art, the scale factor changes in relation to the rotation rate of the system. One of these factors is how close to lock-in the system is operating. As the two beams approach each other in frequency, the linearity between the frequency difierenceand the amount rotation, that is, the scale factor changes more and more. To offset this change and, therefore, minimizmeven more'the amount of time the system spends at or near factor may be controlled by the gain of the laser medium.

Since the output counter 54 gives information regarding the amount of rotation of the system, the rate of rotation may be determined therefrom and, thus, it may be determined therefrom how close to lock-in the system is operating. The preferred embodiment of FiGURE 1 shows a rate monitor 66 which operates to control the powersuppliedtothelasergainmedinmbyapowersonrce 68 through a potentiometer 70. This Secondary control stabilize the system by adjusting the amount of gain of laser gain Indium in neof rotation by monitor-66soastokeeptheoutputofcounter45linear is switched to plus and I 4 with respect to the amount of rotation of the system and, therefore. maintain the scale factor constant;

The biasing techniques of FIGURE 1 may also be accomplished mechanically. FIGURE 2 shows a second embodiment of the present invention which operates to bias the two laser beams mechanically so as to a oid the problem of lock-in. It should be understood that control circuits of the variety shown in FIGURE 1 may also be employed in apparatus of the nature of FIGURE 2, but that such circuits are not shown in FIGURE 2 for the par poses of clarity. In FIGURE 2 a laser gain medium 80 is shown supported on a rotatable base 82 which is mounted by means of three pegs 84, 86 and 88 to three leaf springs 90, 92 and 94 which are in turn mounted to three mount- 'vibrate back and forth as indicated Laser gain medium 80 amplifies and generates light about ing blocks 96, 98 and 100. Blocks 96, 98 and 100 are securely fixed to a base 102 so that rotatable base 82 may by the arrow 104.

a closed triangular loop in the directions indicated by arrows 106 and 108 as already described with reference to FIGURE 1. At a partially transparent corner minor 110 the two beams partially pass through and are combined by an internally reflecting right angle prism 11.2 and projected onto a detector array 114. Detector array 114 operates in the same manner as already described with reference to FIGURE 1. In FIGURE 2, right angle prism 112 is shown firmly attached to the'nonmoving base 102 for reasons later explained. In order to oscillate the moving base 82 in a circular or rotational fashion, an oscillator 120 a shown driving an electromagnet 122so as to periodically attract'and repel a block 124 which is attached to the end of leaf spring 90. The resultant back and forth motion of leaf spring 90 causes table 82 to rotationally oscillate beams will lock-in. However, this interval of time is so short as to operation.

If desired, an oscillator and electromagnetic drive unit may be utilized on each of the three leaf springs although only one is necessary. Another alternative is to drive electromagnet 122 by means of a pickolf which determines the rate of oscillation of the table 82 and drives the electromagnet in accordance with the amplified signals therefrom. In this way, the table 82 may be allowed to oscillate at its own natural resonant frequency, and, therefore, enjoy a more stable form of oscillation.

. As already mentioned, it is desirable to eliminate sine wave modulation of the output signal which resultsfrom the lock-in avoidance apparatus. By mo'tmting pr'nm 112 to the nonmoving base 102, the present invention neatly eliminates this sine wave modulation from the out put signal. The reasons for this are better explained with reference to FIGURE 3 which shows a more detailed drawing of prism 112 and outputmiror 110.

In FIGURE 3, in order to simplify the drawing, the prism 112 is shown as being displaced rather than the mirrorll lasistrulythe caseinFIGUREZAsthetabb 82 in FIGURE 2 oscillates, it causes output mirror 110 to mirror vibrate back and forth by a small amount, shown in FIGURE 3 as a displacement of prism 112 by an amount A. In the first position, laser beam 106 passes through out put mirror and into prism 112 where if k reflected internally by the right angle at the top of prism 11.2 and returns to mirror 110 where it is again. reflected and cumbinedwith laserbeam108.Astherelativep0sitionol prism 112 and mirror 110 thatprismlflmovestothepositiousbownnslmthe laserbeamlMnowfollowsanewpathshownadahd line106A. Because of thetwointernal inpn'm 112 the light'bnm on-ptthiI-A iseaused to retumto ulatapointwhichistwotimesAtotheleftd changes by the amount A, lo--- be negligible in respect tov flu. n 11 where it originally struck mirror 118. In the preferred embodiment of FIGURE 2, this distanm A is maintained small enough so that the displacement of the beam from the position of line 106 to dashed line 106A does not appreciably affect the fringe pattern seen by detector array 114. However, since the small triangle indicated by the number 116 is approximately a 30-60-90 triangle, this displacement to the left of two a causes an increase in the path length traveled by beam 106A of approximately A. Consequently, as table 82 oscillates it causes mirror 110 and prism 112 to move back and forth rela tive to each other by some small amount A which results in a path length change of A. It has been found in the preferred embodiment that this oscillating change in the eiiective path length provides an oscillating phase change in the light beam of path 106A which is of approximately the proper sign and magnitude to cancel out the sine wave modulation which is impressed upon the two laser beams from the rotation of the table 82. Thus, the fringe pattern seen by the detector array 114 may be made representative only of the rotation of the entire system and independent of the oscillation of the table 82.

Since a number of geometric faciors enter into this cancellation, the amount of phase change caused by the relative shift of mirror 110 and prism 112 does not exactly 25 cancel out the frequency diti'erence cazsed by the oscillation of the table 82 if the table 82 is oscillated about its center shown in FIGURE 2 as axis 120. However, it has been found that oscillating table 82 about a slightly displaced axis will compensate for these geometric factors and, therefore, completely eliminate the sine wave modulation at the detector array 114.

It should be understood that other arrangements of optical components may be used to eliminate the sine wave modulation and a prism such as prism 112 should not be construed as the sole solution. For example, an optical wedge may be employed so that the movement of the beams with table 82 would cause the beams to travel through a varying thickness of the wedge in such a way as to cancel out the sine wave modulation. Any arrangement of optical components which will utilize the movement between table 82 and base 102 to change the optical path length of the beams in such a way as to cancel the sine wave modulation is suitable.

Various other modifications may be made to the apparatus herein disclosed. For instance, another method of eliminating the sine wave modulation impressed onto the two beams by the oscillation of table 82 would be to mount prism 112 directly on the table 82 so that the sine wave modulation would then be transmitted through to detector array 114. An angle encoder could then monitor the position of table 82 and use this information to drive a compensating counter similar to counter 50 in FIGURE 1 so that the resultant output signal could be electronically smothed out as described in FIGURE 1. Consequently, I do not intend the present invention to be limited to the particular embodiments and apparatus shown except as defined by the appended claims. k

I claim: a 1. In a device wherein two beams of monochromatic light are generated along a closed loop path in two opposite directions and the'frequcn'cydifierence between the two beams is determined as a measure of rotation thereof, apparatus to prevent lock-in of the two beams of light comprising:

means biasing the beams of light a: different frequent cies; and

means causing the bias to periodically reverse so that the integrated frequency difference therefrom is substantially zero.

2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 including means causing the biasing means to be operative only when necessary to prevent lock'in. V

3.1nadevice wbereintwocounterrotatingbeamsof substantially monochromaticjight in phase 6 to sense the rotation thereof, apparatus to ptflent lock-in of the two beams of light comprising:

means supporting the two beams of light along a closed loop path in two opposite directions; and 5 means oscillating said supporting means about an axis so as to keep the two beams at difierent frequencies for a majority of the time in order to maintain the integrated frequency ditl'erence therefrom substantially at zero.

10 4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 3 including optical means correcting the output of the device so as to negate the false signal which results irom the induced oscillatory frequency ditference.

5. Apparatus as set forth in claim 4 including means causing the oscillating means to be operative only when the difference in frequency between the two counter rotating beams of light falls below a predetermined value.

6. A laser angular rate sensor comprising in combinationaidu means supporting two counter rotating beams of substantially monochromatic light along a closed loop path about an axis, a ditferencc in frequency between said two beams being indicative of rotation of said supporting means about said axis;

means recording the integrated frequency difference between said two beams;

means vibrating said supporting means in a rotational mode to create a diiference in frequency between th two beams for a majority of the time so as to so lock-in;

means sensing the magnitude and direction of the oscillations of the supporting means caused by said vibrating means; and optical means producing a signal in accordance with said sensing means operable to correct the false signals presented to said recording means as a result of the vibration of said supporting means. 7. A laser angular rate sensor comprising in combi' nation: 40 abase;

means supporting two counter rotating beams of substantially monochromatic light along a closed loop path about an axis, a difference in frequency between said two beams being indicative of rotation of said supporting means about said axis:

means vibrating said supporting means in a rotational mode relative to said base to create a dilference in the time so as to minimize lock-in; and

means diverting a portion of each of the two beams from said closed loop path to a detector to be phase compared, said diverting means including optical means operable to combine the portions of the two beams diverted, said optical means positioned so that the relative movement between the optical means and the closed loop path caused by the vibration of said supporting means provides a change in path length for the beams of proper direction and magnitude to cancel the false signal on said detector which results from the frequency difference generated by said vibrating means. 8. An angular rate sensor comprising in mmbinatton: a base; means supporting two counter rotating beams of sub- 55 stantially monochromatic light along a closed loop path about an axis, the difference in frequency between said two beams being indicative of rotation of said supporting means about said radial leaf spring means mounting and Importing means to said base;

means oscillating said supporting means in a rotational direction relative to said base so as to create a riderence in frequency between two beam for a period I oftimewhichislargewithrespecttotlnpericdof 7 timeinwhichthereisnofiequencydill'erucmlnd o t s 3,373,650 7 8 means diverting a portion of each of the two beams References Cited from said F P a detect" P Davis et al.: Electromagnetic Angular Rotation Senscompared, said diverting means including optical i I t -1 Enginegfing Rep Sperry Rcport means mounted on said base operable to combine the AB-1108-0016-1, Sperry Gyroscope Co., Great Neck, portions ofthe two beams diverted, said optical means 5 N.Y., September 1963, pp. 4-1 thru and including 4-7. positioned so that the relative movement between the Macek et aL: Ring L r Ra P dof optical means and the closed loop path caused by Symposium 0H P M3561, p 15, 1953 1. the vibration of said supporting means provides a TIC/37213593- change of path length for one of the light beams, the Gyrds New Configt 519mm, 1963' change of path length being of the proper direction w 1x58001558 and magnitude to cancel the false signal on said detector which results from the frequency difl'erenoe m PEDERSEN' Puma generated vibrating mm B. I. Assistant Examiner.

Disclaimer 3,373,650.J0speh E. Killpatrick, Minneapolis, Minn. LASER ANGULAR RATE SENSOR. Patent dated Mar. l9, 1968. Disclaimer filed Oct. 15, 1981, by the assignee, Honeywell Inc.

Hereby enters this disclaimer to claims 1 and 2 of said patent. f

[Of icial Gazette Jan. 5, 1982] 

